Sports gallery

1958 BUFFALO BULLS SQUAD TOOK A STAND FOR EQUITY

The University of Buffalo will play in the first bowl game of the program's 114-year history Jan. 3, facing Connecticut in the International Bowl in Toronto.

But it's not the first time the Bulls have been invited to a bowl.

In 1958, Buffalo finished 8-1 and was invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl, on one condition.

The team was told its two black players could not participate. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel writes that in the segregated South, the Orlando High School Athletic Association, the organization that operated the Tangerine Bowl Stadium, did not allow integrated football games.

The University of Buffalo's white players voted that they would rather stay home than make a bowl trip without their two black players.

“These were our teammates and our friends,” said Gerry Gergley, a fullback on the 1958 team. “There was no way we were going to leave them behind.”

RIGHTING A WRONG

The 1958 Bulls have all been invited as guests of their alma mater to attend the game and festivities in Toronto.

FINAL TAKE, BULLS

If you're looking for poetic justice, Buffalo brings to this bowl game a black head coach (Turner Gill ) and a black athletic director.

TRIVIA TIME

Name the NFL's last 8-8 division winner, and how far did they go in the playoffs?

RICKEY BEING RICKEY

Once when searching for a seat on the Padres' team bus, Steve Finley told Henderson, “You have tenure, sit wherever you want.” “Ten years?” Henderson replied. “Rickey's been playing at least 16, 17 years.”

He told New York Yankees teammates that his Manhattan condo had such a great view he could see the “Entire State Building.”

On a reported phone message to Padres GM Kevin Towers: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.”